Word: guatemala
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...anti-American guerrilla Augusto Cesar Sandino, for whom Nicaragua's ruling leftist Sandinista movement is named. The alliterative phrase He as an Enders aide said, a rueful reminder that Nicaragua is "gone." He considers El Salvador pivotal because if moderates fail to maintain power there, then to Guatemala and even Costa Rica are vulnerable to insurgency...
...Salvador received most of the attention in Central America last week, but this Sunday the citizens of Guatemala (pop. 7.5 million) will vote in another violence-torn presidential election. Since 1977, an estimated 13,000 people have died in the chaotic and brutal confrontation of the government, Marxist-led guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary forces. The favorite to win the election is the Popular Democratic Front's General Anibal Guevara Rodriguez, the latest officer to represent the mainstream of the conservatives who have controlled the country for 27 years. Two other conservative groups are contesting the election...
...Maldonado campaigners have traveled 8,000 miles and reached more than 200 of Guatemala's 326 villages in a dusty parade of vehicles crawling over the jagged rock and dirt trails that pass for roads in the remote areas. On one occasion, they even foiled an ambush apparently intended for them: after being followed too long by the same cars, they set up a roadblock and surprised their pursuers, discovering an arsenal of weapons and explosives. The men were carrying police identity cards. Such dangers have hardened the Christian Democrats into political missionaries...
Maldonado does this simply by campaigning openly and by indicting government corruption and repression. He speaks with the slow patience of a parish priest, seldom raising his voice. "To do so only frightens people," he says. "We are the only group who can bring peace to Guatemala, because we have no hate for anyone. We feel we are in good hands when we are with the people...
...allowed to use it. I am like a salmon fighting against the currents, even if that is not a good example." He laughs gently. "The salmon always dies when he gets to his destination." Tomorrow begins at 4 a.m., when the caravan will drive toward another department, where Guatemala's forgotten men hope against hope to turn back what seems impossible to turn back...